


Cream Puff

by AA_S



Series: Cream Puff [1]
Category: Persona 4
Genre: Alcohol, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-04
Updated: 2013-10-04
Packaged: 2017-12-28 09:00:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/990185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AA_S/pseuds/AA_S
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I like Kanji/Naoki but there was no Kanji/Naoki to be found. I tried to write Kanji/Naoki. Several times. Attempted. This is where this collection of unfortunately short works are going.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This one is the only one involving alcohol and nothin' happens due to it; it's used only due to the fact that Naoki's family owns a liquor store.

“What’s that?” Kanji asks, brows knitted as he walks past the threshold into Naoki’s room. 

“Beer. You want one?” 

Kanji takes a seat next to Naoki on the boy’s bed and gives him a double-take. Naoki seems unaffected. 

“I—a beer? We’re not—you can’t---just ‘cause your folks own a liquor store don’t mean you can drink it up when their gone!” 

“Kanji lay off.” Naoki says dismissively, waving a hand at him and taking another short drink. 

“I don’t. My parents always had us—me, try the new stuff that comes in. This is new, so I’m drinking a can. Can’t sell liquor I don’t know anything about, right?”

He puts the can out to Kanji. 

“I only ever drink one can, or, one glass if it’s wine. No need to get your boxers in a twist.”

“Hey--!! I wasn’t--!” Kanji begins a retort, but Naoki’s laughter cuts him off swiftly. It had been a while since Kanji saw clear breaks of a smile on Naoki’s face, or anything past the level, slightly bored tone he spoke with. 

“What?” Naoki finally asks, his laughter done but Kanji’s eyes still on him. He can’t really place what sort of expression he’s wearing. He pushes the can into Kanji’s hand. 

“You’re not gonna get buzzed with this, especially if were sharing.” 

Naoki explains this but Kanji still has that look on his face. He shakes his head and takes a drink as if to put off his thought. 

He sputters and coughs, puts his arm up to cough into it. 

“Ha ha, that’s what you get for spacing out!” And Naoki’s laughing again, taking the can from him and drinking a little more. He only drinks sips. 

“That, ugh—“ 

“I know it’s kind of a…yeah, I can’t say I really like the taste much myself. Even with all the different kinds of alcohol we have I haven’t really found one that I could see myself, just, drinking. Like a glass of water. There all kind of bitter and I don’t really like the aftertaste. Well, no, “ 

Naoki’s eyes are fixed on his closed door as he continues to prattle on, the can lingering near his lips. 

Kanji’s watching and listening, perhaps with a bit more attention than he should. He notices his own staring, specifically at Naoki’s lips as he breathes and talks and he turns his head to look at the door too, a flush rushing to his face. 

“I mean, some of them are sweet, but not in a chocolate sweet sort of way. They say sweet but it’s different. And they still have that bitter alcohol taste afterward.”   
Naoki turns his head to Kanji, who’s giving Naoki’s door a mean stare. 

“You, heh, okay there? What did the door do to you?”

Again Kanji’s having to shake out of a trance and takes a minute to return Naoki’s gaze. 

“You alright Kanji? You’re kinda spacey today.” He hands the can off to Kanji again. 

“Here, I’ll be right back. Drink a little of that for me, okay?”

Once Naoki’s feet are out the door Kanji lets out a long bellowing sigh, throwing his head back. The can reaches his lips and he remembers not to swig it this time—sips, like Naoki was doing. Doesn’t help the taste at all, but it doesn’t burn as much and well, he wasn’t surprised by it this time. 

Naoki returns to plop back on the bed with a plate in hand. 

“Cream puff? It’s the good kind, not Junes.” He chuckles lightly to himself and Kanji laughs along; for the family run businesses in Inaba, the children had to keep their ties of loyalty A.K.A. discrediting Junes whenever possible. It was less malicious and more of an on-running joke.

“These are pretty good.” Kanji states between bites. “How many of these am I gonna have to eat to get the beer taste outta my mouth?” 

Naoki bites into his own and the cream oozes. He licks the line of cream up before going back for a bite. Kanji gulps. 

“Depends on how much you’re going to help.” Naoki retorts, his gaze and attention on eating his cream puff. 

“If we eat all the cream puffs and were both still drinkin’ in this nasty ass taste I’ll buy us some topsicles.” 

“Oh yeah? Deal?” 

Kanji knows there isn’t actually any deal considering Naoki could, if he wanted too, just say the taste was still on his tongue even if it wasn’t. 

“Yeah, deal. Should be happy, cause you’re the one who should be treatin’ not me.”

“Who’s cream puffs are these?” Naoki says with raised brows. Kanji sighs overdramatically. 

“Yours Naoki, yours.”


	2. Reconnect

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You know what I'm not good at? Titles.

“He’s a dude, and I’m a dude, but he’s interested…?” 

Spoken word that spiraled a whole deal of misunderstanding, hardship and…new friends. Understanding. Relief. Even if Yosuke acted like a jackass for a long haul whenever Kanji hung out with them. He wasn’t a bad guy, just ignorant as fuck. 

But now he realized he wasn’t just being true to himself, learning to open up; he’d gained a new perspective. This perspective made his chest tighten and his face flush because, well, he’d never observed his old middle school friend in such a way. He was suddenly more observant and he couldn’t figure out how to stop it. 

He’d reconnected with Naoki. They hadn’t seen or talked much with each other since entering high school, having been handed off to different classes. He’d felt guilty, that first time he’d run into Naoki again. He’d known Naoki was having a rough time with Saki’s death, but his own damn mess had taken his attention out from under him and he hadn’t come to help his friend out at all. When he’d seen him though, he was alright. Sempai had helped him, just like sempai had helped Kanji, how sempai was helping everyone. 

And just like any good friendship, they hit it off as if they’d never left one another’s sides. Lots of yelling from Kanji’s side, wise-cracked responses from Naoki, eating Chinese and laughing. Lots of laughing, which Naoki drunk up as if he’d been deprived; which, when Kanji thought about it, he probably was. He felt stupidly happy that he could make Naoki laugh. Naoki had a particular laugh that was a bit like a soft bell chime.

But now he was observing at a heightened fast rate that jumbled his thoughts. Sure he wasn’t the most articulate guy, when it came to the investigation team he tended to interpret things wrong or completely miss them. And maybe it was because he was observing to quick. Naoki would turn to him, their conversation at a sudden stop because Kanji had gotten lost thinking too much, observing too much, only for Naoki to say something sarcastic and for Kanji to yell and sputter, red-faced. 

He felt awkward walking around with Naoki. Physically speaking, he knew he was a big brawny guy, even in comparison to his sempais he was the biggest and tallest of them. But now that he looked, Naoki was slim, and looked as if he’d fall over from a stiff wind, though Kanji knew better. Naoki was….kinda pretty. Naoki had told him what Yosuke had said to him when he’d gone to Junes with sempai and Yosuke’s comparisons of Saki to Naoki rang true. They were both slim, had long slender faces…..delicate eyes. Naoki sat at a pass between feminine and masculine that Kanji didn’t really understand. 

He was undeniably a guy, and not one of those pretty boys who shook their hair out and had all the girls running. It was just..something. He grit his teeth over why he was even trying to come up with a ‘correct’ term for it. Why was he thinking about how Naoki looked anyway? Or how he looked compared to Naoki or that Naoki was pretty like his sister or….anything else. 

Naoki bit his lip. 

“Kanji? Kanji! Hey, you up there?” Naoki raised an arm as if to smack the back of Kanji’s head, though he didn’t move to. 

“Huh?” Kanji spoke dimly, coming back from his thoughts, just a little. He looked down at Naoki, his observing eye continuing and his face brightening at the sight of Naoki biting his lip. Naoki had always done so when he was upset, irritated, sometimes even confused. He’d always done that, but now Kanji was so aware it made him shudder. Something like a middle school pal biting his lip shouldn’t have that affect. 

Naoki huffed. 

“You wanna just go home Kanji? You seem pretty out of it.” 

Still he was biting his lip.

“Stop it.” Kanji couldn’t help but say it, even as he continued to stare. 

“Stop what? What’s up with you today?”

Now he was starting to switch the spots where he was biting, going back and forth between not biting at all and adding pressure. He was close to breaking skin. 

Wherever Kanji’s mind had gone, it wasn’t here. In one swift move he’d turn on his heel, grabbed the back of Naoki’s neck, his thumb stroking a line over his cheek, and kissed him. His kiss was sloppy, it wasn’t as if he was practiced in kissing, and his leaning over cast a large shadow on Naoki. 

A moment before the connect Naoki had opened his mouth to ask Kanji what it was he was doing, but having been drowned out what followed was a simple, slightly broken, “Kanji.”. His surprise having taken him, he could not even add exclamations to his friend’s name. Only the name, half spoken, half taken by Kanji himself. 

Kanji’s mind blew back into his head with such ferocity that he was sure he was upwards of one hundred degrees or more, his entire face, even down to his neck reddening in realization. His eyes were closed; too embarrassed to look at what was certainly disgust on Naoki’s face as he pulled away---when he heard the light lilt of Naoki’s voice. More of a moan, though Kanji really, really couldn’t compute something like that right now. 

“Kan—“ There was a delay. “—Ji.” 

And he now noticed Naoki’s similarly placed hand on the nape of his neck. Kanji opened his eyes, slowly, to meet an expression of slight confusion, but more a look of content, like a cat lying out in the sun, from Naoki. 

“Y-y-y-yeah Naoki?” He couldn’t help the stutter; this was now an all or nothing situation. He couldn’t just back out of this with a lame explanation and something like that wouldn’t sate Naoki anyway. 

“Why don’t you come over for a while? You already met with sempai and those guys, right?” 

Kanji audibly swallowed and Naoki, with his hooded eyes cracked a smile and laughed. 

“Unless you’re not feeling up to it? You’ve been out of it all day.” 

Kanji’s mouth opened and closed comically and Naoki’s smile widened in amusement. 

“YealetsgowhateverIdon’tImeanNaokiI…..!!!!” 

“Wow man, you should be happy I even sorted that out.” Kanji’s blushing was furious, but a glance to Naoki made him calm slightly, for he too was flushed, though it was far less noticeable. Naoki hit him on the back, Kanji grunted and off they walked, Kanji trailing a foot behind Naoki with his hands in his pockets. 

These were the good sort of relationships, where serious things could be silently sorted out and silly things were audibly yelled to the skies.


	3. Crybaby

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was longer but then I realized I don't know how to write people making out. Also this very very short thing is written in the vein of thought that it is an established relationship.

“Heh, you’re pretty good at skipping stones Kanji.”

“Yeah?” A tough wound up throw of a rock goes along with this word. 

“OW! Ack my arm….” Kanji curses under his breathe over his new injury. 

“What? ….Did you pull it skipping that stone or something?”

“No I didn’t pull it you jackass!! I just, ow…”

“Come sit down and I’ll look at it.” Naoki says so as if Kanji’s troubling him and Kanji snorts irritably, even though he knows Naoki could be a real smartass when he wanted to be. 

“I’m, I was, part of the student health association and all…” He trails off, running a hand up Kanji’s arm, examining, twisting and turning (with a few yelps of pain from Kanji). 

“You didn’t pull anything and nothings broken. I think you just swung too hard.”

As if truly adding to his assessment, Naoki continues and ends with, 

“So you’ll be fine you big crybaby.”

“I’m not a crybaby!”

“Yeah, but you are.” He chuckles even as Kanji’s going off with the insults and comments back on why he is not, in fact, a crybaby. 

“Yeah, yeah, Kanji.” 

Naoki leans over, planting a kiss on Kanji’s flapping lips. Kanji stops moving and talking immediately, eyes fluttering.

“Is it really that easy to shut you up?” Naoki teases, which earns him a light jab from Kanji, sending Naoki tilting ever so slightly enough to land on his back. Kanji places both hands on either side of Naoki’s head, leaning down for another kiss. Their kisses could have been described as chaste, though if anything they were more based around a lack of experience.


End file.
